Effective Cross-cultural Advertising: Moderating Roles of Ethnic Identity and Religiosity in Pitching Controversial Vs. Non-controversial Products to Diasporic Communities

ABSTRACT

This study evaluates the impact of casting ethnically identical actors in advertisements to elicit a favourable attitude towards the advertisement and the product. Our study explores the effectiveness of cross-cultural advertising and investigates the effectiveness of advertisements. In this experimental study, a national sample (N = 252) was recruited with an equal number of Indian and Middle Eastern subjects, which were randomly chosen across the United States. The results reflect that attitude formation patterns for Indians and Middle Easterners are dissimilar when they are exposed to advertisements containing actors with varied ethnicities

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-cultural advertising
• social identification
• diaspora
• ethnicity
• controversial and non-controversial product ads

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mian Asim

Azmat Rasul, PhD (Corresponding Author) is an Assistant Professor in the College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi Campus Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Azmat Rasul

Mian Muhammad Asim is an Assistant Professor in the College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi Campus Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Donghee Shin

Don Shin is a Professor in the College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi Campus Abu Dhabi, UAE.